Nate spent the next week in relative relaxation in comparison to the rest of his experience in the wilderness. His new supply of food had given him a bit of stability, but it had also reduced the number of tasks he needed to do just to survive. The safety of the tree hollow and the supply of food allowed for Nate to recognize signs of another problem. He had just been too busy and frazzled before to recognize the issue. It wasn’t a super serious matter, but Nate had become aware that he was talking to himself much more often. His self monologue hadn’t gotten to the point of entire conversations, but it had become bad enough that he was able to distinguish it himself.

He had truly tried to stop the urge to chat with himself but it seemed like the habit had already set itself in pretty thoroughly.

At first, he had considered the worse. Maybe his head was injured or he had unknowingly consumed some poison. Then his rational mind took over and the source became clear. The cause of his unexpected behavior change was simple. He was starting to get a little lonely and slightly bored.

For his whole life, Nate had been in the hustle and bustle of the Grey Sector of Newcomb City. Although he did not interact with many people intimately in his daily routine, Nate was still used to at least seeing people frequently and casual conversation of a community. In this wilderness, he only had himself.

With a realization that his loneliness was affecting him mentally, Nate only had one solution. Stay busy.

It was his only option really.

He practically memorized his only reading material from reading it so many times. He crafted a few arrows to replace those that he broke. He managed to level up his [Archer’s Sight] skill by several levels from practice. He even prepared the giant acorns in different preparations albeit more an act of boredom instead of culinary effort.

Roasted acorns over fire became his favorite of the method for preparing the woody sustenance.

Sadly, all of those activities only kept him somewhat occupied for three days.

After half a week of a rather sedentary life, his boredom and restlessness became the drivers for adventure that he hadn’t expected. During his time sitting around, he had seemed to think of just living out his days in the tree hollow, eating acorns and training his skills. He had always been working for most of his short life. Now that he had his freedom of the city, he considered taking a break.

For the hundredth time in the past three days, Nate pulled up his user interface to review his information.

—————————————————-

Name: Nathaniel Redsun

Level: 7 (Exp. 389/700)

Health: 110/110

Energy: 1/0

Primary Class: Calm Survivor (Level 4)

Class Skills:

Survivor’s Need (Passive) (Level 2)

Survivor’s Awareness (Passive) (Level 2)

Survivor’s Resistance (Passive) (Level 5)

Secondary Class: None

Stats:

Speed: 12 Agility: 12

Stamina: 13 Strength: 16

Intelligence: 13 Perception: 13

Wisdom: 13 Will: 18

Stat Points Available: 0

General Skills:

Silent Presence (Passive) (Level 6)

Dark Vision (Passive)(Level 10)

Pain Resistance (Passive)(Level 9)

Bleeding Resistance (Passive)(Level 4)

Infection Resistance (Passive)(Level 4)

Poison Resistance (Passive)(Level 10)

Burn Resistance (Passive)(Level 1)

Fear Resistance (Passive)(Level 6)

Archer’s Sight (Passive)(Level 5)

————————————————-

Reviewing his information, Nate felt that he was in pretty good shape. The three days of rest had allowed him to increase skill and restore his health to the maximum. He also glanced over his stats. Between reading his book and trying to remember anything he could recall, Nate had used some of his downtime trying to piece together bits about training levels and improving oneself.

From his memory, he guessed that his stats were now halfway to some of the higher level adults in the Grey Sector of Newcomb City. He was able to make the comparison from a strange incident that had happened one day in the factory when he was around 8 years old. The only specific reference to an actual stat of someone over Level 15 was an event that had caused commotion in the weapons factory. In the middle of one workday, loud excited yells could be heard echoing off the factory walls. A man yelled, “Finally, 50 strength. I can leave this shitty place.” The disruption caused several errors on the work floor and became an issue for all the supervisors. From the general worker discussion the next day, Nate had found out that a Level 19 worker had been promoted out of the factory and assigned to another sector. If a level 19 factory worker had a strength stat of 50, then Nate assumed that a Level 7 worker should have a strength stat of around 14 to 16. His strength stat was at 16, so he felt that he was close enough to average.

His skills were a different story. Skills were a rare commodity in the Grey Sector and everyone was always quick to brag if they got one. Most people had a few skills that were related to their work. Active skills were even rarer and Nate hadn’t heard of but a few mentions of those types of skills. The fact that Nate had a dozen passive skills was not what he considered ordinary. He didn’t know what to think about the situation but was very thankful to get so many skills.

Closing his user interface, Nate said to himself, “I need to go do something." Then, he immediately chastised himself for talking to himself. He was mentally losing the battle of isolation.

After restlessly sitting in his tree hollow for the last couple of days, he decided to attempt hunting and exploring again. He couldn’t stay idle any longer and the risk was worth the reward in his mind.

After making the decision, it didn’t take long for Nate to get his items together for a trip outside his home. He had all of his hunting gear ready. However, his main goal for this trip was to fill up his backpack with some more acorns. Even though he had enough supply to last a few weeks more, Nate was uncertain how many more he could gather.

*******************

As he crept along between brush piles and behind rock outcrops, Nate’s fears about the wilderness were slowly disappearing. Although his first few days in the wilderness had been filled with danger, his last couple of days had been relatively carefree.

With less worry over food and shelter, he was able to focus more on his surroundings and began to learn more and more about everything. Moving about the forest floor, his first goal was to find some more of the trees that produced the tasty acorns. He also knew that finding these trees could possibly give him a chance to see the pigs again.

After an hour of scuttling along, Nate managed to spot some of the unique looking trees off in the distance. The lack of color from the trees caused them to be highlighted in the forest environment.

With Nate’s luck growing, he actually managed to see a few beasts off in the distance as he neared the acorn producing trees.

As he moved closer, he realized quickly that these pig beasts seemed to like to congregate in groups. The first group had done the same thing. No beast wandered far away from the group so attacking one would alert the entire herd.

With no opportunity presenting itself, Nate spent most of his time was spent watching beasts from a distance. He watched how they moved through the forest, what they ate, and how they interacted with each other. For a guy that had been hidden away inside a tree for three days straight, the pigs offered entertainment that was desperately needed.

However, Nate’s relaxed watching of the beasts didn’t last that long. After about ten minutes of watching the wild pigs, Nate noticed movement a bit away from the group.

[Perception Stat has increased by 1]

Out of the corner of Nate’s eye, he could see that another beast was creeping towards the group of feasting pigs. Nate watched as the dark-colored animal moved in slow quick bursts of speed while getting closer to the pigs. Nate focused in on the newcomer and could make out a slender furry body and a long bushy tail. The predator was about the same size as the man-sized pigs but looked vaguely similar to the cat beasts that Nate had learned about in school. The beast moved stealthily and seemed to time its movements with the actions of the pigs to avoid detection. The pigs didn’t have any idea that the cat was approaching.

Nate was a little startled by the sly movements of the cat. He was certain that if he was hunted by this stealthy beast then he wouldn’t even notice. The unease made him ready his bow and arrow to be prepared if the situation got out of his control.

After the cat got within a few body lengths from one of the pigs, it suddenly sprung forward and latched hold of the nearest prey. A squeal so loud it hurt Nate’s ears busted out of the animal that was attacked. The pig thrashed about, but the cat did not let go of its bite on the pig’s neck.

Unlike what Nate had expected, the other pigs scattered off into the underbrush leaving the other beast behind to fight off the cat. He had avoided shooting one of the beasts with an arrow because he feared that the whole herd would attack him. The actual reaction of the group was to flee. The pig was left alone to fight off the beastly cat.

And, It wasn’t much of a fight. The pig’s squeal quickly died off as the cat's mouth latched harder onto its neck. As the squeal turned into a gurgling noise, the pig’s legs buckled and it fell down on the ground. Nate could see the pig beast’s rapid breathing begin to slow down as the cat continued with its death grip on the pig’s throat.

Leaning forward to get a better look at the scene, Nate inadvertently dislodged a piece of bark from the tree he was perched on. The piece wasn’t large, but the thud that it made when it hit the damp forest floor caused the cat to release the crippled pig and go on high alert.

Nate froze as the beast looked around trying to determine the source of the noise. As Nate held his breath and tried to remain as motionless as possible, he locked eyes with the beast. As soon as he made eye contact, the hair on the cat back stood up and it showed its mouth full of teeth dripping with the blood of the pig.

[You have been affected by ‘Fear’ status]

[All stats have been reduced by half]

A bit of movement from the dying pig broke Nate’s eye contact with the cat for a split second. With that small break in eye contact, the cat beast disappeared. In a fraction of a second, the beast had moved toward Nate with a speed he hadn’t expected.

[‘Fear’ status has been removed]

[‘Calm Survivor’ class effects are active. All Stats are doubled. All experience earned is doubled.]

[‘Fear Resistance’ has increased to Level 7]

Luckily for Nate, he had already had his bow and arrow at the ready as the beast moved up the tree towards him.

The beast did not expect Nate to release a projectile from that distance and was unable to dodge the arrow as it impacted the beast’s sternum. The beast let out a hiss as it panicked at the pain and fell from the tree to crash into the ground. The shot must have been good because the cat beast didn’t move once it hit the ground.

[‘Archer’s Sight’ has increased to Level 6]

[‘Fear Resistance’ has increased to Level 8]

[‘Archer’s Sight’ has increased to Level 7]

With lessons learned from the past, Nate had readied another arrow the second the first one left the bow. Seeing the beast unmoving on the ground, Nate didn’t hesitate to send another arrow down to plant itself in the downed beast’s neck. He wanted to make sure it was dead.

Since so much commotion had been caused in the woods, Nate knew he was working with a limited window of time. The squeals would most likely attract a bigger more dangerous beast.

Utilizing his speed to the max, Nate climbed down the tree and arrived at the cat beast’s body. Nate was certain that the noise and blood would attract more beasts. He didn’t know much, but he understood this from his experience with the snake beast’s corpse.

Reaching the cat, he prioritized his efforts as he drew out his knife and got to work. Nate didn’t have time to make full use of the animal. Two arrows, a few larger fangs, the beast’s fluffy tail, claws, and a beast core were quickly removed from the dead animal and tucked into Nate’s backpack. He took what he thought may be useful and quickly moved over to the pig.

The beast was amazingly still alive but barely. Not wanting to risk getting too close to the pig’s sharp tusks, Nate readied his bow and lodged an arrow in the beasts chest to finish it off. After all signs of life drained from the beast, Nate approached the animal and got to work. Some select cuts of meat were quickly removed from the beast and wrapped up in a leaf from nearby. In his last task, Nate began cutting into the neck of the beast to reach its beast core near the base of its brain. The area had been mangled by the attacks of the cat, but Nate found a few pieces of broken core. This was something new for Nate, so in an attempt to save time, he grabbed the pieces of broken beast core and tossed them into his bag with the rest of his items.

Realizing he had already spent too much time at the bloody scene, Nate put his backpack on, readied his bow and moved off towards his shelter. The memory of the cat beast silently attacking the pig still lingered in his mind. He couldn’t keep himself from constantly looking over his shoulder as he moved through the forest.